I thought this was a great picture to post for today because it shows the beautiful American Flag, and also is a great gift to give to newlyweds or new homeowners. This painting of our house was a gift I gave to my hubby for our wedding. The artist, John Benson, is just outstanding! We loved our painting so much, we decided to get one for each of our parents for wedding gifts too! You can find his work here.
Monday, May 31, 2010
Happy Memorial Day!
I thought this was a great picture to post for today because it shows the beautiful American Flag, and also is a great gift to give to newlyweds or new homeowners. This painting of our house was a gift I gave to my hubby for our wedding. The artist, John Benson, is just outstanding! We loved our painting so much, we decided to get one for each of our parents for wedding gifts too! You can find his work here.
Friday, May 28, 2010
I'm Leaving on a Jet Plane...
Thursday, May 27, 2010
Glass Fusion
Wednesday, May 26, 2010
My Bucket List
I feel I have partially accomplished some of the ideas on my bucket list, such as:
1. Go away to college and graduate with my BSN (GO VOLS!)
2. Find a nursing job I truly love.
3. Live on my own.
4. Complete my Masters degree in Nursing.
5 Fall in love and marry the man of my dreams
6. Have my dream wedding
7. Honeymoon in Hawaii
8. Vacation in the Bahamas, Aruba, Jamaica, Puerto Rico, St John, St. Thomas, and Mexico
9. Fly first class
10. Take dance lessons (Okay, so we didn't exactly finish them, but we had fun during the couple we went to! And trust me, the instructor is probably glad we didn't complete our package, as we need more help than she could provide!)
11. Hot air balloon ride.
12. Learn sign language (alright, I already forgot most of it, but I did take it for a semester in college and it was by far one of my most favorite classes where I learned a great deal).
13. Go parasailing.
14. Live at the beach for a summer.
But there is still so much more I want to do in my life:
1. Visit all 50 states (or at least most of them)
2. Meet Peyton Manning (I mean, outside of OCI in Knoxville)
3. Go Sky Diving
4. Go on a cruise
5. Learn to stitch, and be taught by my grandmother
6. Take sailing lessons
7. Watch the sunrise with the love of my life
8. Open a gift shop
9. Stand outside The Today Show at Rockefeller Center
10. Stay at Sea Island Resort in Georgia
11. Experience a true "Spa Day"
12. Take an annual girls trip...and really stick to it, regardless of weddings, pregnancies, and births! (No wonder guys can take these trips each year without difficulty!)
13. Decorate our dream home
14. Go to "Regis and Kelly Live" and meet the two of them!
15. Take golf and/or tennis lessons
16. Host a dinner party, and I mean, a real sit down dinner party, not just our usual cookout atmosphere (although, we love to entertain outside on nice days!) with our fine china and all!
17. Visit the Greek Islands
18. Adopt a family for Christmas
19. Become a mother
20.
21. See the Cherry Blossoms in D.C.
22.
23. Visit the Golden Gate Bridge in San Fransisco
24. Grow a garden full of beautiful flowers and veggies
25. Host an annual Christmas party
26. Fly in a helicopter (cant believe we decided not to do this in Hawaii now!)
27. Go wine tasting in Napa Valley
28. Attend the Kentucky Derby
29. Visit these sunny spots: Antigua, St Kitts, St Martin, Anguilla, Barbados, Cayman Islands, St Lucia, Turks and Caicos, St Croix, Bermuda, and Costa Rica (I have a lot to do!)
30. Take an annual week vacation in North Carolina's Outer Banks or somewhere that becomes a family tradition.
31. Go to the Biltmore Estates at Christmas time.
32.
33.
34.
35. Go apple picking.
36. Visit Niagara Falls
37. Visit Ireland.
38. Visit Italy.
39.
40.
Now, what's on your bucket list?
Tuesday, May 25, 2010
Tuesday Treats: Chocolate Marshmallow Pops
(Here, I placed the finished pops in a container I picked up from Michael's for easy traveling!)
Ingredients:
Bag of large marshmallows
one bag milk chocolate morsels
tub of sprinkles
lollipop sticks
I made ~18 pops, but these ingredients can probably double that amount.
5. Immediately dip chocolate covered marshmallow into bowl of sprinkles and coat well.
6. Place marshmallow on baking sheet, standing upright.
7. Place marshmallows in refrigerator until ready to serve.
Perfect for a summer treat!
ENJOY!!!
Monday, May 24, 2010
Parmesan Shrimp and Broccoli
14 oz bag frozen, cooked, peeled and deveined shrimp
1/2 cup grated parmesan cheese
14 oz bag frozen broccoli florets
Shredded parmesan cheese (optional)
Directions:
1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
2. Thaw shrimp under running water and drain.
3. Fill resealable bag with grated parmesan cheese. Fill with shrimp and shake to mix well.
4. Line baking sheet with aluminum foil and lightly spray with cooking spray. (you dont have to line sheet, but I like to for easy clean up!)
5. Pour shrimp on baking sheet and bake for 15 minutes, stirring every 5 minutes.
6. Meanwhile, cook broccoli in a microwaveable bowl for 4 minutes.
7. Drain broccoli.
8. Grease round casserole dish with cooking spray and add broccoli.
9. Pour shrimp on top of broccoli.
10. Add shredded parmesan cheese (optional)
11. Place back in oven for 10 minutes.
ENJOY!
Saturday, May 22, 2010
My Favorite Cleaning Supplies
My dear Handi Wipes, what would I do without you?!?! I use them just about everyday. I have one I use in the kitchen and then keep the rest of the stack in the cleaning bin for days like today. They do a great job and don't fall apart, yet can still be tossed away when you are done with them-no more laundry involved!
Friday, May 21, 2010
Productive Weekend Update!
1. Get everything together for taking call. I really think a nice glass of wine would help with some of the jitters of having to take call for the first time, however, I'm afraid one glass would turn into two...or three...and then I might be a little impaired to take care of patients. So, I decided to just keep my mind off of it and get some errands done, while of course having my phone glued to my side.
2. Target for some cleaning supplies for the weekend. And thankfully, for once, I stuck to my plan and did not come out of there with a bunch of other items that I did not necessarily need!
3. Dry Cleaners to make a drop off.
4. Bank, to make a deposit! YEA! It's so nice to make a deposit instead of a withdraw...house in the county, here we come! (in the far, far future)
5. MIL's house to drop off some of the wonderful purchases I made at Macy's a couple weeks ago. They were having a GREAT sale and I picked up some of the lingering items off of our registry. We have all of our Villery & Bock everyday dishes and I couldn't be more excited! They even had Waterford on sale so I picked up one of our wine glasses. I can't wait to entertain in our new house (in the future) with our new dishes and serving utensils!
6. Then, I headed to Road Runners with the hubby. He said he wants to start running with me, and I'm SOOO excited! And I didn't even ask him, he wanted to do this on his own! Road Runners was awesome! They measured the hubby's feet, put him on a mat to see where he puts most pressure, and then watched him run on a treadmill. He got a new pair of sneakers that he says feel AWESOME!
7. And our last stop (in between the many pages I received and trying to figure out what to do with all these patients I dont know), was at the vet to pick up this:
Spring Cleaning
Thursday, May 20, 2010
Spinach Quiche
1/2 small onion, chopped
1 Tbsp butter
10 oz frozen chopped spinach, thawed and drained well
5 eggs, beaten
1/4 tsp salt (I omit this)
1/8 tsp pepper
12 ounces shredded cheddar cheese
Directions:
1. Saute onion and butter until tender. Add spinach and cook until moisture has evaporated.
2. Cover bottom of greased 9 in pie plate with cheese. Add spinach on top and gently mix into cheese.
3. Beat together eggs, salt and pepper. Pour on top of cheese and spinach mixture and gently mix.
4. Bake at 350 degrees for 30 minutes.
Wednesday, May 19, 2010
Pretty in Pink
Tuesday, May 18, 2010
Tuesday Treats: Good Old Fashioned Rice Krispie Treats!
Monday, May 17, 2010
Girls Night Out at Boordy Vineyards!
Saturday, May 15, 2010
Preakness
Friday, May 14, 2010
Stamping
Thursday, May 13, 2010
Paradise
Magazine Mania!
Wednesday, May 12, 2010
Happy Birthday, SIL!!!
I added a little bag of chocolate covered pretzels I made and tied a little bow around the bag. (the bow for her bag was a matching purple)
So what gifts are in these boxes?!?! I'm not going to give away all of her gifts, but one of my favorites is the Bayshore Stripe Ottoman Tray from Jaye's online. I thought it would be a wonderful gift since its quite practical, but also so cute!
"Birthdays are good for you. The more you have, the longer you live." -Unknown
Tuesday, May 11, 2010
Tuesday Treats: Double Chocolate Mocha Trifle
Ingredients:
1 package of brownie mix (and ingredients to make your mix)
2 cups of milk
2 packages (3.4 oz) of vanilla pudding mix
4 tsp instant coffee grounds
2 Tbsp water
2 cups whipped topping
chocolate covered toffee bars, crushed
(and here I had to do some improvising. I thought I bought chocolate covered toffee candy, however, it was just the toffee part, so I went out and got a couple Heath bars, and since we are in Baltimore, I just crushed the heck out of the bars with my crab mallet and got a wonderful candy mix for the topping!)
ENJOY!!!
"A day without chocolate is a day without sunshine" - Lora Brody
Monday, May 10, 2010
Flower Mart
Tulips in a big mint julip cup! I loved it! Plus, this was my favorite stand, as it had the most adorably decorated cupcakes ever!
And of course we had to have a couple treats. Hubby was torn between the Boardwalk Fries or the Fried Dough. Fried Dough won!
Friday, May 7, 2010
Happy Mother's Day!
My mom is amazing! This woman never runs out of energy and never says she doesn't have time for something or someone. She is a very caring mom who is there whenever I need her, no matter what time of day/night it is, or no matter how far away she is. I gave this poor woman a run for her money during my teenage years, but as adults, we have so much fun together and have so many similar interests. She is caring, she is sweet, she is athletic, she is energetic, she is creative, and above all, she is my mom! Happy Mother's Day to the best Mom ever!
"A Mother is she who can take the place of all others, but whose place no one else can take." Cardinal Mermillod